The amount of the investment is not yet known, nor are the specific details of the accompanying collaboration, but Evrythng’s “Facebook for things” approach could gel with Samsung’s open-platform aspirations.

Quirky will launch Wink, its connected home brand, as a separate company. But the real test of Wink’s success in the market will depend on awesome software and a distribution channel that educates consumers.

SmartThings has been an early mover in the connected home, but it’s also been struggling to reconcile its vision of openness with a user-friendly product. Its latest app and business decisions should help.

As more companies release connected gadgets for the home, startups selling one-off devices are coming up against those who want to integrate everything into their own applications. What’s a consumer to do?

Home security is one of those emerging areas where the crowdfunding crowd sees an opportunity to provide something smarter, cheaper and disruptive to the existing industry. With $10 million, Canary hopes to invade the biz.

Like chocolate and peanut butter the connected home gets its own perfect pairing with IFTTT offering users a SmartThings channel. Now SmartThings hub owners can combine their home sensors with web services.

Connecting sensors as well as connected devices to build an Internet of things-style service isn’t easy. But new products from vendors that range from Texas Instruments to ThingsSquared and Mobiplug make it easier for product vendors and consumers to build internets of things.

The Internet of Things should be its own category on Kickstarter, since there’s yet another project on the site that hopes to connect your physical and digital worlds. But its real promise may be in providing context to computers that will evolve into new user interfaces.